“But what was it like?” asked an elderly man with a squat-nose, whose mind was not quite clear, although he had already listened to an elaborate description.
“Like? Ho! it was like—like—”
“Like a big kayak?” remarked some one.
“No, no. Far, far bigger,” said the magician, making an imbecile attempt to indicate inconceivable size by waving arms and outspread fingers; “it was—as big—as—as—”
“A whale?” suggested Squat-nose.
“Bigger—Bigger!” said Aglootook, with a lost look in his eyes. “You could stuff twenty igloes into it; and there were three great poles rising out of it as thick as—as me, with other poles across them, low down and high up, and walrus-lines hanging about in all directions, some as thick as my wrist, others as thin as my finger, and strange igloes inside of it—not of snow, but of wood—with all kinds of things you could think of in there; and things that—that—you could not think of even if you were to try—that nobody ever thought of since the world began—wonderful!”
This seemed to fairly take away the breath of the audience, for they could only glare and remain dumb. For a few moments they breathed hard, then Squat-nose said in a deep whisper—
“Go on.”
Aglootook did go on, and kept going on so long that his audience were forced to go off and assuage the pangs of hunger which prolonged abstinence and mental excitement at last rendered unendurable. But no sooner was appetite appeased than the magician and his hearers returned to the subject with redoubled energy.
“Is it very, very far away?” asked Aglootook’s wife, with a sigh, when he explained to her the wonders of the mirror.